We stopped to see some friends who live along the desert side
of the resort. This was the sky on Monday as the sun began to set.
The cloud formation is called Kelvin-Helmnoltz Cloud.
They are also know as billow clouds, shear-gravity clouds,
KHI clouds, or Kelvin-Helmholtz billows.
The rolling eddies seen at the top of the cloud layers are
usually evenly spaced and easily identifiable.
The clouds are named for Lord Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz.
They are often good indicators of atmospheric instability
and the presence of turbulence for aircraft.
(notice how as the sun set, the wave tops went the other direction)
These clouds form when two different layers of air
are moving at different speeds in the atmosphere,
a wave structure will often form.
The upper layers of air moving at higher speeds and will
often scoop the top of the cloud layer into these
wave-like rolling structures.
The clouds often form on windy days where there is
a difference in densities of the air,
such as temperature inversion.
from weather.about.com
Kelvin Helmholtz Clouds
by Rachelle Oblack
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